Volvo Car Corp. wants to bring to an end the sight of slaughtered animal carcasses on the side of the road, as the safety-focused luxury brand seeks to gain a technological edge over Bayerische Motoren Werke AG.
In development is a system that uses a radar sensor and an infra-red camera to alert the driver to nearby critters and brake if a collision is unavoidable. That technology is due to be rolled out in a few years in cars like the XC90 sport-utility vehicle, priced at $38,400, after employees studied the movement of moose and deer in southern Sweden, reported Bloomberg.
“It’d be good because it’d allow the driver to avoid a lot of unnecessary animal killings,” said David Cain, who runs an annual roadkill cooking contest in West Virginia. “He could still choose to run over something that’s good for eating.”
While frying up squashed squirrels may not be to everyone’s taste, wild animals are a costly hazard. There were an estimated 1.09 million collisions with deer in the U.S. in the 12 months through June 30, causing about $3.5 billion in damages, according to State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co.
Volvo, owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., is seeking ways to stand out among competitors as all cars get safer. Road deaths in the U.S. are down 25 percent since 2005, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. While Volvo's deliveries this year are forecast to trail a 2007 high, BMW, Volkswagen AG’s Audi and Daimler AG’s Mercedes-Benz are targeting record 2011 sales and will deliver three times as many vehicles. The world’s top three luxury-car brands are also working on their own active safety features.
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